Prime Ministers Office declared on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy died in an air crash.

The helicopter carrying YSR Reddy, two of his staff and two pilots went missing in pouring rain Wednesday morning over the Naxal and tiger-infested Nalamalla forests.

Five bodies were been found at the site where Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy chopper’s wreckage has been traced.

The government on Thursday confirmed that Nearly 24 hours after YSR’s chopper went missing, it was located atop Serai Salem hill, at a distance 40 nautical miles (70 kms) east of Kurnool.

The CM left Hyderabad on a six-seater Bell chopper at 8.35am for Chittoor accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer. After 9.27am, radio contact was lost with the helicopter.

Soon after the chopper lost contact, multiple agencies of the state launched a massive hunt for possible wreckage in the desolate terrain. By evening, it expanded into the country’s biggest-ever search operation with satellites in the sky joining remote sensing aircraft, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, troops on the ground and even barefoot deer-hunting tribals with bows and arrows.

Telecom major Tata Indicom on Tuesday launched a ‘pay per call’ plan for its pre-paid subscribers, in which subscribers will have to

pay fixed charge on a per-call basis both for local and STD usage, regardless of the call duration.

“Our pre-paid subscribers will pay a fixed charge of Re 1 per local call and Rs 3 for STD calls for unlimited duration, said MD of Tata Teleservices Anil Sardana while launching the new tariff system. Tata Indicom operates CDMA-based mobile services in the country and has a customer base of 40 million subscribers.

The new tariff system, which will intensify the rate war, is valid on all calls made by Tata Indicom subscribers to “any mobile phone

or landline connection on any network”, said a statement issued by Tata. The new offer has also cut SMS charges to 50 paise per SMS for both local and national messages.

The service is available to all new Tata Indicom connections and existing customers can adopt the offer with a one-time recharge of Rs 96. The statement said, all subscribers who opt for it will be charged a daily fee of Re 1 to avail the option.

However, the new tariff will not be available to the post paid subscribers. The company may introduce it for the post paid customers also after assessing its success among the pre-paid customers.

COO of NCR region of Tata Teleservices Vineet Bhatia said, “The product is the result of research and studies to understand consumer trends and usage patterns.” He added customers who opt for this plan will no longer have to worry about the cost every minute of a call. “Also, the fact that this offer is for both local and STD calls makes it unique, something that holds the potential to completely redefine the Indian telecom pricing paradigm,” he said.